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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Photo questions #1

Recently I have been learning to make better use of my camera, but by no means do I fully understand this whole photography thing. Apparently there is more to it than:

"Oooo...pretty flower"

Point

Zoom

Focus

Ca-click!
Freshman year of college I took black and white photography using an old 35mm film camera. Dark room and all. My hands smelled like developing fluid for the next quarter and a half, and my negatives always seemed to be out of order. But the real fun was trying to jam the film into that wonky black container by feel...
All of this was a piece of cake compared to figuring out all the buttons and knobs on the Nikon my family gave me as a graduation present a few years later. I am lucky enough, however, to have a friend who was willing to answer lots of stupid questions, and a computer genius husband who showed me the basics of editing. That being said I am most certainly still a beginner.

So...I have questions...you have answers.

Or at least I hope you have answers, and are willing to share. :)

Here's my first question:

This is a photo I took at a friend's wedding a couple weeks ago. I like it...except for one thing...

I'm sure you've noticed that the left side of his vest is extremely sparkly. Whatever it was made of was disastrously reflective. I was able to tone it down a bit by raising the black point, reducing the amount of red, and lowering the highlights. These adjustments only made a dent in the blaring glittery-ness that is his vest. I would like to reduce the sparkle by about 75%, so we have a black vest with a little glisten from the sun, not a huge patch of fairy dust ( I edit with Aperture, by the way).

Is there a way to isolate that patch and bring it down a notch? Is there a way to avoid this problem altogether? If I were to take this photo again how might I shoot it better?

About Me

Welcome to LemonMint! I love making things, from knitting and crocheting, to cooking, crafting, and up-cycling. This is where I share ideas and things I have made or written. I also design and tech edit.